History of opioids

Opioids were originally plant-derived chemicals that were found to have properties of pain relief and sleepiness.

They've been used for a variety of purposes, including anesthesia and acute pain, and slowly worked their way into the chronic pain space in the last 30-40 years.

As a result, there's been a real upswing in opioids being used for chronic pain treatment, and this is where the problem begins.

"We had over 1,000 opioid-related deaths in 2016, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics," explains Hardy.

"It's the equivalent of three or four plane loads of people dying as a result of it."

Misconceptions around overdose

Nowadays, opioids are prescription-only in Australia, and it's been that way since February 2018.

However, many patients are still accessing opioids through their GPs via prescriptions, and they're often much more potent than people realise.

Opioids have been prescription-only since February 2018.Image: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

"People have the misconception that because they're taking the drug orally, they can't overdose or die from it.

"One of the other major problems we have is addiction and relapse. It's a vicious cycle of people trying to get off them and relapsing.

"And when they relapse, if their tolerance is reduced, they can overdose."

Solving a health crisis

Hardy argues that a national policy is needed in order to effectively deal with the opioid problem in Australia.

"Cities that are on the border (between states) are likely to experience an upswing of opioid prescriptions over the border, if there are policies in one state but not the other.

If an opioid problem is suspected, Hardy's advice is for a patient to contact their GP, or look up the National Drug Information Line.

Chevron Right Icon'These patients are quite complicated.'

"We can look at various options for containing the problem, or detoxifying the patient off their opioids.

"We're mindful of the risk of relapse, and we have to take great care with those sorts of things.

"These patients are quite complicated, often with multiple mental health issues underpinning the fact that they're using pain relievers to get through what might have seemed to be a simple, uncomplicated surgery in the first place."